This invention relates to bingo games and similar games of chance, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for identifying winning cards in the course of play without intervention from the player holding the winning card.
Bingo is a game of chance played with game cards imprinted with a pattern of symbols. A game operator draws symbols and the winning card or cards are those cards which first produce a predetermined pattern of matches between the card symbols and the drawn symbols. Bingo may also be referred to as lotto, although this is to be distinguished from lottery games in which players simply choose their own numbers or symbols and winners are determined on the basis of matches between the player chosen numbers or symbols and randomly drawn numbers or symbols.
In a bingo game sequence, a game conductor or operator oversees the sale of preprinted game cards to game players. Each game card comprises a sheet of material having a preprinted pattern of card symbols which are often, but not necessarily, arabic numerals, printed on the face of the material. Often, the pattern forms a grid and traditionally a five-by-five grid of squares commonly known as a card face. The card symbols are selected from a pool of symbols, for example, the numbers 1 through 75. Traditionally, the first grid column of five squares may include any combination of the numbers 1 through 15, the second column any combination of the numbers 16 through 30, and so forth, with the center of the five-by-five grid commonly comprising a free square. In this example of a five-by-five grid-type game card, there are more than 1.times.10.sup.17 possible combinations of card faces. Each number or other symbol printed on the card appears only once on that particular card. The symbols comprising the pool of symbols are printed on balls or other tokens which are randomly drawn in the game sequence by the game operator or conductor.
The game operator starts the bingo game by announcing a pattern on the game card which the player must have in order to win. The pattern must be produced by matches between the printed card symbols and the symbols drawn randomly by the game operator. The winning card or cards are those which first contain the predetermined pattern of matches. The predetermined pattern may be a row, column, diagonal, complex pattern such as a combination of such shapes, for example an H shape, or any other recognizable pattern including a totally matched card.
As the game operator draws or otherwise randomly produces symbols from the pool of symbols, they announce the drawn symbol to the players who have game cards for that sequence. The players are commonly located in a room or hall which has facilities including chairs and desks from which players may monitor their cards for matches. Each player is responsible for monitoring their card or cards and marking, or otherwise keeping track of each match between a symbol drawn by the game operator and a symbol printed on the card. The first player to produce matches in the predetermined pattern on a card announces to the operator and is the winner or a winner for that game sequence.
Problems arise in the play of bingo games due to the dependence upon the players for monitoring their game cards and announcing when a winner is produced. Players lose their chance to win if they fail to recognize that they have a winning pattern on a card before the next symbol is drawn. Thus, the game must be played fairly slowly in order allow sufficient time for players to check their card or cards. Also, the time allowed by the game operator for checking cards often does not account for any physical disability or handicap which a player may have which would cause the player to monitor their cards and announce more slowly than other players. Other than fairness to players with disabilities, a host of other issues arise, such as the size of numbers on the card face, the size of the card itself, and the number of game cards which one person is allowed to play in a single game sequence, for example. Bingo card producers produce cards in lots or series with a certain number of cards or card faces, commonly referred to as a bingo series. For example, a bingo series may include 9,000 faces or separate five-by-five grids. Each card face represents a unique permutation in that series. Also, bingo cards are commonly produced with a unique card identifier such as a serial number printed thereon. A card identifier may also be encoded in a bar code printed on the card or in some other code such as a magnetic code placed on the card. The card identifier or serial number may be used to identify the card face or arrangements of symbols printed on the card.
Card identifiers and card faces for a series of game cards are commonly also distributed in electronic format, along with the cards. The electronic information has been used to produce a certain level of automation in the play of bingo games in terms of verifying winning cards. In these verifying systems, the game is played the same way as purely manual games. However, as the game is played, the game operator inputs into a verifying computer or processor the winning pattern required for that game and each of the numbers as they are drawn by the game operator. When a player announces that they have a winning card, the player gives the card to the game operator and the operator inputs the winning card serial number or other identifier into the verifying computer. Software associated with the computer causes the system to access the card series database to verify that the card actually includes the winning pattern of matches.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,909,516, Kolinsky discloses an automated card game system which creates randomly numbered game cards and stores all cards in computer memory. As the game is played, the computer system plays each card, tracking every match. By tracking every match for each card in play, the system may alert the players and game operator when a winner is produced. Although the system disclosed in the Kolinsky Patent in theory eliminates the reliance on the game players, the system limits the types of games which may be played, and also requires significant processing power. Also, because the Kolinsky system produces its own randomly generated card faces, the system raises security and accountability problems.